Scott's Song by Song #50: John Holden - The Great Divide

 

Welcome to issue #50 of Scott’s Song By Song (#scottssongbysong).For more information about this series, click here: https://www.facebook.com/share/Gc2VkwHQWGLdeaDd/?mibextid=oFDknk

Today I am going to check out the 6th album, titled “The Great Divide”  by U.K. progger John Holden.  John is a multi-instrumentalist from Cheshire.  After several years in a monastery, writing sacred music, John decided to turn his talents to progressive rock, which he had discovered in his youth, with his first album coming out in 2018, with a plethora of notable proggers onboard to help him realize his vision. Since then he has steadily released albums nearly every year since (excepting 2019 and 2023).  John stated the he wanted to perform more of the instruments himself on this release, although there are still a few guests along for the ride:

Line-up / Musicians

- John Holden / guitars, bass, keyboards, drum production, vocals

With:

- Peter Jones / vocals (2,5)

- Sertari / vocals (3,6)

- Iain Hornal / vocals (4,7)

- Luke Machin / guitar (2)

- Michel St-Père / guitar (7)

- Jon Poole / bass (6)

I have heard a few of John’s songs in the past, and enjoyed them, but I am far from an expert in his catalog.  I did reach out to John and he provided me with a download code to do the review.  As always, "I call it like I hear it” and there is no additional compensation for doing this, and as usual, this is a cold listen.  Let’s see if we can cross the Great Divide.

Track 1- The Great Divide (13:13)

So we begin with the longest track on the album, the epic title track. Based on the credits, this track is all John.  It begins with a mellow keyboard part at a moderate tempo.  John begins singing at around 30 seconds.  What a great voice!  At around 1:20, the progginess begins with some odd meter riffage, but it returns to 4-4 and a moderate tempo and the synth takes the lead. By 2:25 things shift again. By 3:00 a new groove is developing, and guitar takes the spotlight. There are some recurring themes as we go along, sometimes featuring the guitar, sometimes on keys. As we approach the 5 minute mark, beautiful female vocals enter, although no guests are credited on this track.  I am assuming that they are provided by Sertari who is best known for her work in the band Karnataka, as she is the only female vocalist credited on the album at all.  If it is not her, I hope that John will give us clarification.  There is violin at around the 6 minute mark (also uncredited) then John begins singing again.  The two begin to harmonize and turn this segment into a beautiful duet.  The rhythm begins to shift  around 8:25, but the sound is still lush and dreamy.  A guitar solo comes in at around 9:30, but it is brief.  A new guitar riff enters at 10:30 for a brief 6-8 bit.  I like the guitar work at around 12:15 playing a countermelody to the vocals.   There is a big finish chord to close out the track.  This opener is a truly beautiful song!  I wish that the album credits were a bit more accurate, as the female vocalist (whether it be Sertari or someone else) is a major component of this song.  The violin also adds a nice touch.  But that said, it is a wonderful opener!

Track 2 - Storm Warning (9:42)

According to the credits, Peter Jones of TigerMoth Tales, The Bardic Depths and others provides vocals and Luke Machin, of The Tangent and many others (whose solo debut I just recently reviewed) plays guitar.  Interestingly, Peter Jones also guested on Machin’s aforementioned solo album “Soulshine” (I’ll link the review below). The track begins with a foreboding synth chord the way the other instruments enter gives an air of mystery to the song. There is an underlying synth sequence giving a sense of forward motion.  Jones' vocals are wonderful. The rhythm fully kicks in around the 3 minute point. I like the extra reverb on the line “if the winds howl out your name”; as it adds strength to the phrase.  The feel of this song reminds me of John Payne era Asia.  At around 4:45 the rhythm drops out and a keyboard feature begins, joined by vocals soon after.   Luke Machin’s lead guitar takes the spotlight at around 5:30; and it’s a terrific extended solo of nearly 2 minutes in length. After another vocal segment, there is more great lead playing.  Synth answers some of the guitar phrases. Great track!

Track 3 - Runes (7:36)

A wistful piano part opens the track, on which Sertari IS credited as the vocalist. There are synth strings accompanying the piano solo. At around 1:30 the music pauses before a droning chord lays the foundation for her vocal entrance.  This has a very Celtic flavor to it.  Acoustic guitar chords begin to accompany the vocals at around 2:45.  There is a bit of percussion between verses.   At 4:00, the rhythm gets steady with a drumbeat. Around 4:30 the synth lead has a slight bagpipe timbre to it.  Before the 5 minute point the drums drop back out for a quieter part. They soon return at a moderately slow tempo. Sertari’s vocals are hauntingly beautiful. At about 6:40, piano takes back over, synth strings come back behind it, then Sertari puts the final punctuation to the song with a lovely “ooh” followed by an audible soothing breath.  Fantastic song!

Track 4 - Leaf to Blade (5:36)

This one begins with a folky, almost country, acoustic guitar strum and a bit of dobro slide.   Iain Hornal (who has performed with Yes featuring ARW, ELO and 10CC) is credited with the vocals on this one. Piano is also a part of the soundscape. I believe the lyrics are a commentary on the current state of American politics, but not in an angry, scathing way as some other recent albums I have reviewed have done, but more in a sense of sadness and hope that things will get better again. There are wonderful harmony vocals accompanying the verse as we proceed.  After a short instrumental break, the bridge enters with reduced instrumentation.  As I listen to this one, I am struck with the irony that musically, I think this could be a country radio hit, but many of their fans would be angry over the lyrics (or possibly even misconstrue them to think they are in support of the current situation).  This really has that “heartland” vibe. The title refers to the lyric in the choruses “From the maple leaf, to the cactus blade”, indicating the northern and southern US borders. This is a cool song, not prog at all, but I really like it.  It could become an earworm!

Track 5: This Jewel was Ours (8:46)

Once again, Peter Jones is credited with vocals.  Clean electric and acoustic guitars play in a classical guitar style on the introduction.  Other instruments begin to join in, and even a bicycle bell rings right before the first verse begins. Between verses there is a countermelody on a string type sound.  The second verse has a flute countermelody.  This one is classical in it’s structure, thus far. There is both a standard bass guitar providing some rhythm and a fretless bass giving some fills. At around 3:45, the rhythm, changes, and a drumbeat and a bit of distorted guitar join in. The bass line is very cool.  This is a very orchestrated musical section.  Organ comes in at 5 minutes and the guitar takes the spotlight next. In fact the instruments tackle turns coming out front. Another verse follows. There is a key change at around 7 minutes. The classical style guitar playing returns near the end of the track.  Some of the melody reminds me of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”.  

Track 6 - Sandcastles (4:54)

Synth leads Sertari’s vocalizing in, and by 30 seconds, there is an upbeat syncopated rhythm established. This song has a jazzy vibe to it, in the contemporary smooth jazz sense.  Once again  there is a great bass line. Sertari’s vocals are quite nice! There is a nice synth solo in the middle, which evolves into guitar/synth unison lines. The solo playing is well executed. This is a pretty good track that many would enjoy, but it isn’t my favorite on the album.

 Track 7- Art and Craft (9:17)

Brass style synths start this one off, giving the impression of a brass ensemble.  But at 50 seconds there is an instrument that reminds me of a Japanese koto or something similar. Iain Hornal returns on vocals, and Michel St-Père of Mystery and Huis (both of which I have done a spotlight on) is credited with guitar here. At around 1:30, the rhythm section joins in and the tempo picks up. At around 3 minutes, it sounds like a small orchestra.  I would not be surprised to learn that  John Holden studied composition and/or arranging at the college level. At around 4 minutes the rhythm starts building up, then eases off again. There is a lovely instrumental section at around 5:30 for a minute or so. St-Père enters with his solo at around 7:45, and rock drums are among the accompanying instruments. St-Père is outstanding as anyone who knows his playing well would expect.  Cool track with a lot of musical and compositional depth.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:

If you are looking for a prog album with a lot of dazzling displays of virtuosity and full of “twiddly bits”, this isn’t it. Not many if any odd-meter sections either.  HOWEVER, if you are looking for something more eclectic, with rich compositions, wonderful singing and well arranged and played instrumentation, you should really check this one out. We have bits of styles ranging from country to contemporary jazz to Celtic.  As I stated, I believe that Holden has studied classical composition for his previous role in writing sacred music as the music is quite sophisticated. All of the guest performers contributed quite well, with Luke Machin’s guitar solo on “Storm Warning” being a standout for me.  The guest vocalists were all perfect for the songs which they performed on.  I wish there was more info about who played and sang on the title track.  Also I would have preferred a live drummer over the drum machine.  The drum programming was well done and doesn’t really detract from the music, but I think the live drum energy could have enhanced the music that much more.  This is an immersive listening experience and a strong album. I’ll give it a 4.25 out of 5 stars. (An interesting side note:  I uploaded the file into  iTunes for playback, and each song after the opening track had its own unique artwork that fit the song, something I’ve never noticed before.)

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Prog On!

Scott

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LINKS FOR LISTENING/BUYING/FURTHER READING

The full album is not available on YouTube at the time of this writing, however there are a few videos out:

Album Trailer Video:

https://youtu.be/3mQiEMpXeiQ

The Great Divide (Full title track)

https://youtu.be/Zly_-bDRpYw

Storm Warning (Edited)

https://youtu.be/P86yvZEOCSM

Art and Craft (Edited)

https://youtu.be/lOUGqf7gUls

The album can be purchased as either a CD or Download through his website:

https://johnholdenmusic.com/

Or as a digital DL on his Bandcamp page, where you can also listen to the tracks:

https://johnholden.bandcamp.com/album/the-great-divide

Related articles:

Here is a review of Luke Machin’s “Soulshine” that I recently did:

https://scottssongbysongandspotlights.blogspot.com/2025/09/song-by-song-46-luke-machin-soulshine.html

My Spotlights on Mystery and Huis (Michel St-Père)

https://scottssongbysongandspotlights.blogspot.com/2025/05/scotts-spotlight-16-mystery.html

https://scottssongbysongandspotlights.blogspot.com/2025/08/scotts-spotlight-41-huis.html